Ford Dealers

Recruiting an apprentice is a long term commitment for your business and for the apprentice. It is important to consider several issues when thinking about taking on an apprentice, including:

What’s your current ratio of technicians to apprentices?

Do you have enough qualified staff to be able to give your apprentices the help they will need to develop their own skills. Do you have enough qualified technicians to satisfy the growing demands of your customers?

What’s the age profile of your current technicians?

The motor industry faces potentially severe staff shortages as the skilled population ages. You need to make sure you have enough technicians to replace people as they retire. As a general guide, most motor manufacturers recommend a ratio of one apprentice for every three qualified technicians.

If a qualified technician were to leave how would you replace them?

Advertising is very expensive, as is offering increased salaries to attract technicians from other brands. Although recruiting and training apprentices
calls for a significant investment of time and money, it is almost always cheaper in the long run to train your own staff than to recruit from outside or even worse to have to turn away work because you do not have enough qualified technicians.